Working, moving, visiting. On the quality of everyday rituals

Abstract

If rituals are by definition phenomena that are set apart from everyday routines, how are we to understand the concept of"everyday ritual"? This paper suggests that everyday rituals could be defined as instances of behaviour that are so closely connected to ordinary tasks and duties that they seem to be more like parts ofthese routines than contrasts to them while, at the same time, they are discernible by formal criteria as units in their own right. This definition is tried out on three examples ofactivities, concerning working, moving and visiting. It is further argued that though rituals are very interesting objects ofstudy, they are not necessarily any more meaningful than other forms of behaviour.